How a turf war and a botched contract landed 2 pentesters in Iowa jail

Enlarge / Mug shots of Gary De Mercurio, left, and Justin Wynn. (credit: Dallas County Jail)

In the early hours of September 11, a dispatcher with the sheriff's department in Dallas County, Iowa, spotted something alarming on a surveillance camera in the county courthouse. Two men who had tripped an alarm after popping open a locked door were wandering through courtrooms on the third floor, she reported over the radio as deputies raced to the scene. The intruders wore backpacks and were crouching down next to judges' benches. When the first deputy pulled into the parking lot, the men moved to an open area outside the court rooms and concealed themselves.

"They were crouched down like turkeys peeking over the balcony," Dallas County Sheriff Chad Leonard said in an interview. "Here we are at 12:30 in the morning confronted with this issue-on September 11, no less. We have two unknown people in our courthouse-in a government building-carrying backpacks that remind me and several other deputies of maybe the pressure cooker bombs."

After more deputies arrived, Justin Wynn, 29 of Naples, Florida, and Gary De Mercurio, 43 of Seattle, slowly proceeded down the stairs with hands raised. They then presented the deputies with a letter that explained the intruders weren't criminals but rather penetration testers who had been hired by Iowa's State Court Administration to test the security of its court information system. After calling one or more of the state court officials listed in the letter, the deputies were satisfied the men were authorized to be in the building.

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